THE MAN FROM S.T.U.D.

Full Name:	Bret Steele
Series Name:	The Man From S.T.U.D.
Nationality:	American
Organization:	S.T.U.D.
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	F. W. Paul
Time Span:	1968 - 1971

ABOUT THE SERIES

Bret Steele is an agent with S.T.U.D.

The acronym stands for the Special Territories and Unique Development which "some bright boy at the top thought up ... as a euphemism for the kind of hard-core, knee-in-the-groin jobs no other insurance company would touch", according to Steele. It is a division of a large global insurance company known as Unlimited Insurance.

Very little is known about Steele. He certainly claims no great ability in anything, even bed, but he does have a knack for fulfilling any requirement the job throws at him. Unlike other characters in the erotic spy-fi sub-genre, Steele is not an expert in sex. He is just someone who tries extra hard. He claims that before he started work for United he was "a nice, decent guy" but after this association with the kind of people that S.T.U.D. dealt with has seen him "contaminated, defiled, debased, deflowered, violated, and rendered generally impure."

To be honest, Bret Steele is not really a spy - he's an investigator for a world-wide insurance company. Still, he is included in numerous lists of spy series and his world-wide work would certainly qualify him for a dabbler in international intrigue.

There are two characters of some recurring interest in the series. Carter B. Franklin is the annoying dispatcher at Unlimited tasked with handing Steele his assignments and perpetually complaining about the expense reports that Steele hands in after each case. Paradise Jones is the beautiful girl from W.I.L.L.I.N.G. (Western Integrated Long Lease Insurance Nonpayment Group), who joins Steele on two of his assignments.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	10
First Appearance:	1968
Last Appearance:	1971


1			3 For An Orgy Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1968 The Potentate of a North African nation wants his son to marry the daughter of the ruler of a tiny European princedom. Steele's job is to pick up three beauties at a convent where they have been lusting to get out, escort them to the ceremony, and make sure they remain chaste and untouched. Unfortunately, enemy powers want the whle thing disrupted.

2			The Orgy At Madame Dracula's Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1968 Bret Steele is given the assignment of delivering $1,000,000 to a client. That client, though, has headed to Transylvania and finding the person and delivering the money is proving very difficult, what with all the women appearing to be vampires and wanting to seduce him.

3			Sock It To Me, Zombie! Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1968 Bret Steele was assured this assignment would be normal. Unlimited was the primary insurer of a movie project taking place in the Caribbean. His job was to convince the beautiful star to sign a contract to make the movie and then stick around to make sure nothing happened to her before the film was finished.

4			The Solid Gold Screw Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1968 Pleased with a simple job for a change, Bret Steele set out on his latest task; escort a circus that Unlimited just bought as it came to America for a tour. Suddenly the circus just disappears and Steele finds finding it to be quite a job, especially with the Hungarian Secret Police who are on the trail of spies.

5			Tool Of The Trade Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1969 The Man from S.T.U.D. was set to work with the girl from W.I.L.L.I.N.G, another branch of Unlimited. The case was a simple one in which an insured man had been given the wrong policy and stood to gain a sizeable amount of money from Unlimited unless Steele could get proof of a breach of the morals clause.

6			Rape Is A No-No Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1969 It was en route the briefing for yet another assignment that Bret Steele ran into a beautiful woman on a plane. She claimed to be a successful medium who was in touch with the souls of several departed Native-Americans who were in need of someone with Steele talent for getting into and out of trouble.

7			The Planned Planethood Caper Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1969 Acting as an insurance agent as well as a troubleshooter, Bret Steele had to journey to Kansas to write a policy on a ship. Knowing that to be a strange place for a ship, he was confused but not as much as when he learned that the ship was really a flying saucer and held the entire female race from the planet Spatz.

8			Lay Of The Land Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1969 Bret Steele was told to act as bodyguard for someone named Mike Fleming. Mike turned out to be a beautiful woman that lots of people want dead and soon!

9			The Girl With The Polka-Dot Box Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1970 The Man from S.T.U.D. is again united with the Girl from W.I.L.L.I.N.G. as they are sent out to find and retrieve the daughter of a Chicago mobster who disappeared with a considerable amount of daddy's loot, insured by Unlimited. Finding her might have been easier if they hadn't been hindered by daddy's second daughter, also with cash she didn't own.

10			King On Queen Written by F. W. Paul Copyright: 1971 Two two-ton statue of a Chinese Mandarin having sex with a Siamese Queen, insured by Unlimited, had either been destroyed by fire or had gone missing. It was Bret Steele's job to determine which. To do so, he had to battle the mob that worked for the owner and the government agents that wanted the owner behind bars.

MY COMMENTS

Since only the first couple of books really have Steele operating in any capacity like a secret agent, it was tempting to omit these books but that would have been a shame. They are not bad!

Certainly, they are full of sex and often empty of sense but they can be a good deal of fun if the reader doesn't expect anything out of them except prurient fluff. I think, however, that the reader might enjoy the down-to-earth approach of Bret Steele to most problems.

It is interesting that like several of the other sexpionage series that existed around the same time, like the Coxeman, Man from O.R.G.Y., and such, this one actually tried to tell a good story. Rather unexpected.

GRADE

My Grade: C-

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